Dec 13 Monday (St. Lucy, Virgin, Martyr)
The context: After casting out the animal-merchants and moneychangers from the Temple immediately after the Palm Sunday procession,
Jesus started teaching in the Temple courts. Hence, the chief priests and elders of the people approached Jesus, questioning his authority to enter the city in a triumphal procession, allowing the children to acclaim him, curing the sick, casting out merchants and moneychangers and teaching in the Temple area. It was a trap. If Jesus claimed Divine authority, as the Messiah, they would bring a charge of blasphemy. Jesus could not claim only human authority without denying His very Being as Son of God as well as Son of Man. But even if He could, His arrest as a mad zealot would give scandal, another sin, and would damage the simple Faith of the people in the Temple and what it stood for, destroying Jesus’ whole Messianic Mission. So Jesus refused to answer, unless they would first answer His challenging counter-question about John the Baptist and his message – was this from God or man? Was this Divine or human? If they answered Divine, the questioners would be asked to explain why they had not accepted John’s message and his witness-bearing that Jesus was the Messiah. If they answered human, they would have to face the anger of the crowd who had accepted John as a prophet. Hence, they kept silent, opting for a shameful self-humiliation.Life message: In religious matters we should not
ask the question whether our stand is safe, politically correct, or useful.
Instead, we need to stand for truth with the courage of our Christian
convictions even if it costs our life. (Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Dec 14 Tuesday (St. John of the Cross, Priest,
Doctor of the Church)
The context: Jesus entered Jerusalem, which was
to be the scene of all the Passion events he had predicted. After he had
cleansed the Temple with prophetic indignation and had started teaching in the
Temple area, the priests and the elders approached him and asked for his
credentials to teach. Jesus used the parable of two imperfect and disobedient
sons to give them a wake-up call. Through this parable, Jesus gave them the
warning that, because of their pride and their refusal to obey God’s call to
repentance, they would exclude themselves from God’s Kingdom, while the
tax-collectors and sinners would repent of their sins and would be accepted
there.
In the parable, a man who has two sons tells both to go out
to work in the vineyard. The first says he will go but he does not. The second
says he won’t go, but later regrets his refusal and goes to work. The second
son who first refused to go to work in the vineyard represents the tax
collectors and sinners, while the first son who agreed to work but did not go
represents the scribes and the Pharisees. The parable gives us the warning that
it is our final decision for or against God that is most important, because we
are rewarded or punished according to it. The message of the story is crystal
clear. There are two very common classes of people in this world. First, there
are the people whose profession of Faith is much better than their practice.
Second, there are those whose practice is far better than their profession. The
ideal son for this parable would be a son who accepted the father’s orders with
grace and respect and who unquestioningly and fully carried them out as Jesus
did his Father’s will.
Life messages: 1) We need to lead a responsible
Christian life, saying “yes” to God. We should become men and women who profess
our Faith in word and deed, knowing that, “Not all those who say to me,
‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but those who do the will of my
Father Who is in Heaven.” 2) The Christian way lies in performance,
not just promise, and the mark of a Christian is obedience, graciously and
courteously given. (Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
L/21
Dec 15 Wednesday:
The context: John the Baptist sent a few of his
disciples to Jesus to clarify whether he was truly the fiery Messiah John had
described, then introduced to the people. Jesus encouraged John the Baptist to
cast away the popular expectations about the Messiah and simply to accept
Jesus’ healing and preaching ministry as the fulfillment of the Messianic
prophecy of Isaiah.
Explanations by Bible scholars as to why John sent his
disciples to Jesus: 1) John knew that Jesus was the Christ and, as a prisoner,
he wanted his disciples to follow Jesus as their new master. Jesus told them a
prophecy from Isaiah to help them understand the purpose of his healing
miracles. 2) John began to doubt Jesus’ identity as the promised Messiah. The
silent healing, preaching, saving, and empowering ministry of Jesus was a
surprise to John and to those who expected a fire-and-brimstone Messiah. Nor
did Jesus conform to popular Jewish beliefs about a wealthy, warrior-politician
Messiah who would bring political, social, and economic deliverance to Israel.
Instead, Jesus pronounced blessings on the poor in spirit, the meek, and
peacemakers (5:1-11). Jesus called the disciples to love their enemies
(5:42-48). Furthermore, Jesus moved away from Jerusalem, the home of the Temple
and the center of religious authority and began preaching and healing in
Galilee among the common people (4:12). John had proclaimed the power of the
coming Messiah to bring in a new age, and instead, he found himself imprisoned
in the dungeon of Herod’s prison fortress at Machaerus, southeast of the Dead
Sea, wondering why the expected Messiah was not setting him free as Isaiah
(61:1) had predicted.
Life messages: 1) We need to learn how to
survive a Faith-crisis: If John the Baptist, even after having had a direct
encounter with Jesus the Messiah, could come to the point of question, doubt
and revision of his Faith, then so can we. 2) Let us remember the truth that
all our Christian dogmas are based on our trust and Faith in the Divinity of
Jesus who taught them. It is up to us to learn our Faith in depth and to remove
our doubts. (Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
L/21
Dec 16 Thursday:
The context: Since Jesus’ ministry, as reported to
John the Baptist, did not match with his expectations of a fiery Messiah, John
wanted to clear his doubts. When he sent his disciples for this purpose, Jesus
encouraged John the Baptist to cast away the popular political expectations
about the Messiah and simply to accept his healing and preaching ministry as
the fulfilling of the Messianic prophecy of Isaiah. When John’s disciples had
left, Jesus, paid the highest compliments to John the Baptist as his herald and
the last of the prophets, and to the courage with which John had proclaimed his
prophetic convictions. John completed the cycle of prophets begun by Elijah (Mt
11:13-14). He had the moral courage to criticize the immoral life of Herod the
king with prophetic conviction. He convinced the Jews of his time that they
needed to repent and renew their lives to receive the long-expected Messiah
into their midst. Then he introduced Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes
away the sins of the world“ (Jn 1:29), or the true Messiah who would redeem
mankind from the bondage of sin. But Jesus declares that his followers are
greater than John the Baptist, because by Baptism we are made children of God,
heirs of Heaven and temples of the Holy Spirit.
Life messages: 1) We have the same mission as John
the Baptist, namely, to bear witness to Christ the Messiah by our exemplary
Christian lives in a world controlled by agnostic and atheistic media, by
liberal and leftist politicians, and by liberal judges. 2) Hence, we, too,
require grace and the courage of our Christian convictions to live a
Sacramental life, and exercising a spirit of prayer. (Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/) L/21
Dec 17 Friday:
The context: Starting with a genealogy was the
Jewish way of beginning a biography because the Jews gave importance to the
purity of the lineage which made them part of God’s Chosen People. For a noble
Jew, the line must be traceable back through five generations, and for a Jewish
priest traceable back to Aaron. Matthew presents Jesus’ human ancestry,
indicating that salvation history has reached its climax with the birth of the
Son of God through Mary by the working of the Holy Spirit. The Jewish
genealogies followed the male line. Hence, Joseph, as the husband of Mary, was
the legal father of Jesus, and the legal father was on a par with the real
father regarding rights and duties. Thus, it is through Joseph, His legal
father, that Jesus became the descendant of David. Since the Jews generally
married within their clan, the early Fathers of the Church believed that Mary
also belonged to David’s family. As a legal son of David, Jesus is the
fulfillment of prophecies. The genealogy of Jesus Christ in today’s Gospel is
carefully arranged into three groups of fourteen generations each. The three
groups are based on 1) the rise of Israel to a great kingdom under David and
Solomon, 2) the fall of the nation in the Babylonian exile and 3) the raising
of the nation after the exile. The three groups symbolically represent the
creation of man in God’s image, the loss of man’s greatness in Adam’s sin and
the regaining of greatness through Christ Jesus.
Life messages: 1) We need to accept and support,
lift up, and correct the bad members of our family, acknowledging the truth
that every family has some black sheep. Jesus’ genealogy mentions a harlot
named Rahab, an adulteress named Tamar and a Moabite Gentile woman named Ruth.
We need to remember that God can bring good out of the worst persons and
circumstances. We need to appreciate our membership in the Divine family of God
by Baptism and behave as holy children of a Holy God. (Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/) L/21
Dec 18 Saturday:
The context: Today’s Gospel focuses on the story
of the Virgin Birth, which is at the heart of our Christmas celebrations. It
focuses also on the person and role of St. Joseph. In today’s Gospel, Matthew
sees in the passage from Isaiah one of the most descriptive and definite
prophecies foretelling that the future Messianic King, Christ, will be born as
a descendant of David. In order for Jesus to fulfill this promise, Joseph had
to, and willingly did, accept Jesus as his son, making Jesus a descendant of
David because Joseph was a descendant of David. Matthew makes it clear that Jesus
was not the biological child of Joseph. But because Joseph was the husband of
Mary at the time Jesus was born, Jesus was legally the son of Joseph and, thus,
a descendant of David in his royal line. Luke tells us of Mary’s obedience
(Luke 1:38), and Matthew shows us Joseph’s obedience. Luke tells the story of
the angel’s appearance to Mary (Luke 1:26-38), but Matthew tells us only that
the child was from the Holy Spirit.
God’s message through His angel: This is the
first of four* occasions on which an angel appears to Joseph in a dream. The
angel commands Joseph to take Mary as his wife. Mary’s role is to bear a son,
and Joseph’s role is to name him. By naming him, Joseph makes Jesus his son and
brings him into the House of David. Joseph’s hallmark is obedience — prompt,
simple, unspectacular obedience. Joseph’s obedience allows Jesus to be adopted
as a true Son of David; it is Mary’s free consent to the will of God that
allows Jesus to be born Son of God. In the end, Joseph takes Mary as his wife,
in spite of his fears, and he claims her son as his own by naming him. In spite
of his earlier decision to divorce this woman quietly, Joseph nurtured and
protected and watched over and loved both Mary and her child. *[The other three
angelic vision-encounters are: 2) the message to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt
and stay there, until 3) the angel comes to tell them to come home again, and
then 4) to settle in Galilee instead of Bethlehem or Jerusalem.]
Life messages: 1) Like Joseph, we need to trust
in God, listen to Him and be faithful. Like Joseph and Mary, we are called to
be faithful, to trust in God as we do His will. Let us talk to Him and listen
to Him speaking through the Bible. 2) Let us try to imitate Joseph and Mary,
the humblest of the humble, the kindliest of the kindly, and the greatest-ever
believers in God’s goodness and mercy, and welcome Jesus into our hearts and
lives not only at Christmas but all year long. (Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
